World class shitstorm yesterday. As many regulars know, I am working a project at an Air Force base. Well, the prime contractor, that is the guy with the overall contract who hired us, lost his performance and payment bond......back in February.

This prickmeister has been slow paying, delay paying, cutting invoices......basically using every tired trick in the book to stay well ahead of me but paying us enough to keep us coming back. Well, I finally got fed up and decided to send notice to owner, something we rarely do on federal projects, but something that is highly symbolic for us because the Contracting Officer for the AF gets a copy and will know there may be some shenanigans going on and get involved. This is something prime contractors do not want.

Well, the long and short of it is that their bonding company was an outfit called First Sealord Surety, Inc. It turned out that they were put in to liquidation by Michael Consadine, insurance commissioner for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, where these djiblotties were domiciled.

What this means is that first off, the prime was lying and covering up their problem to the AF, which is a huge fucking no-no, and secondly they breached our contract by concealing a material fact, one that leaves me with no recourse in the event of their bankruptcy or default on the contract. Well, after I notified every single sub-contractor on-site, all of whom I have known for two decades, a world class shitstorm erupted, the likes of which I have not seen in years, and all as a result of my e-mails being forwarded not only to the local office of the USACE, but also SOUTHDIV USACE Mobile district, where the contract is being serviced. I called the CO today to see what they were going to do and ask if they already knew about this and was told that indeed they were uninformed until my e-mail was forwarded, they thanked me for dredging up this info, and they told me that the possibility is strong that the prime will be ejected from the job and that the remainder of the work would be placed out to bid.

Here's where it gets even more stupid. The prime has not yet paid my August invoice, which is illegal under the Prompt Payment Act, and is now refusing to take my calls. I found out through some very enterprising little birds I know that these fucktards have drawn down their 700,000 dollar credit line and have run out of operating capital as a result of underbidding the DIRECT COST of this job by 3 million dollars. The estimator bid this building as though it were a simple Butler Building, which can be bid quickly by using a simple formula which is calculated based upon how many pounds of steel are to be used and the square footage of Kynar coated panels to be installed. Unfortunately for that dumbass, this is not a butler building. This hangar is an engineered steel structure using structural shapes, 2.5' thick wall panels which are a sandwich of pre-finished steel sheets and polyisocyanurate insulation. The structure is designed to withstand 160 MPH winds and light arms fire [per ATFP reqs.]

Anyhoo, it looks like the project will get red flagged tomorrow and I will have to bag 10 guys, call off three 80 foot boom lifts, 2 60 foot boom lifts and some scissor lifts.

Reminds me of a time I was doing some project management consulting work at a refinery in a tiny carribean island. They were ... highly encouraged by the local government ... to use local labor whenever possible for their contact labor. They had all kinds of engineering/construction projects and maintenance projects going on all the time. The tiny island had a limited local labor pool, however. The same local contractors were always bidding on new contracts even when they were obviously understaffed to complete the contracts they were already awarded. The refinery had some projects that were months behind schedule because the local contractors didn't have any people to work them. Boggled my mind that the refinery would continue to award new contracts to the same local companies.

__________________ The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. - Lao Tzu